Skip to content

Mayor’s message for Christmas 2020

 As this tumultuous year draws to a close, I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who have kept our communities going since March – the shopkeepers, the delivery services, the NHS staff and care providers, and every volunteer, all of whom have made such a difference to us in St Just and Pendeen.  I also want to thank the Town Clerk and his staff at the Town Council and the Library. The workload of the Town Council hasn’t changed – indeed it has increased – which has kept the office staff and the councillors on our toes, adapting to remote working and Zoom meetings whilst maintaining the schedule of work.  It has been challenging. Thank you one and all.   

 Now Christmas is upon us, but how different it will be this year.  Our usual plans have had to be adjusted, and many of our seasonal activities have had to be cancelled.  Not surprisingly, this has led some to feel that Christmas itself will be cancelled this year! The good news is that Christmas will come, whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in; and we’ll make of it what we can.  So it’s lovely to see the Christmas trees appear in St Just and Pendeen; and St Just has its usual Christmas lights, thanks to our intrepid volunteers.  We couldn’t have our Walking Nativity, but it its place we have the “Advent Windows Around St Just”, in houses and businesses across the town, which tell the Christmas story one day at a time and give us all a chance to walk the streets of St Just to follow the story.  The customary Christmas services will be very restricted and diminished, but we have still been able to sing carols outside in St Just and Pendeen.  Whatever our circumstances, let’s keep in contact with our friends and families, even if we have to be at a distance, and focus on simple pleasures as we share the joy and peace which Christmas offers us. 

 Then, as 2021 arrives, we can be sure that it will be an eventful year!  A new President in America; a new future out of Europe with all the complications that will bring; and hopes that with the right measures in place and the arrival of the vaccine against COVID we may be able to regain a measure of normality again as the year progresses.  We’re certainly hoping that in September we’ll watch the Tour of Britain Cycle Race as it speeds through St Just and Pendeen, postponed from 2020; and particularly enjoy the Ordinalia in the Plen an Gwary in St Just.  Most of all, we’ll look forward to the freedom of visiting friends, spending time and having meals together, giving and receiving hugs again – now won’t that be wonderful?  And until that happy day, hold on, take care of yourself and others, and keep the faith.  This too shall pass.